The day had broken with the muezzin's call to prayer. As the amplified cry echoed over the city, it stirred up long forgotten emotions. Being Jewish it brought no need to satisfy devotion, but as an Egyptian he had lived with it through childhood, teens and adolescence. To Claude it had the same effect as a peal of bells ringing the changes has to an exiled Briton.

Having seen Jacob off, he accompanied Nessim and Nazreth as they made their way through the crowded Souks that reminded him so much of Alexandria. Here were the same jostling people, the same colours and smells of spices, perfumes and roughly tanned leather. Oh those coffee bars, and all the time the air was filled with the noise of so many voices, and the incessant sad songs of Arabian singers broadcast loud and clear from speakers at each alleyway corner. To a western ear it was discordant and worried the nerves, but to a middle-eastern soul it wrenched at the heart strings and soothed some deep seated longing that simply yearned for love and happiness. The plaintive rhythm of the melodies aroused some euphonic feeling prior to the sorrow of their cadence. Then how good it was to play the haggling game. As much as he had enjoyed the experience in the shops of Aden, it hadn't been quite the same as it was in a bazaar with people bustling and pushing past all the time.

The Oracle of Inebhedj in Chapter Nine

When she had lain down full length on her back upon the bed, the maidens nudged the head of the boat out into the pool where the natural flow encouraged by the fountains took charge and carried it into a similar channel, but one which funnelled down to a width hardly greater than the beam of the punt. The constricted conduit increased the flow, and soon Bilqees was transported into an amazing tunnel of light. Initially the whole of the curved walls and ceiling glowed brightly from some micro-organism related to a glow-worm, but one which was not only much more minute, but far more radiant.

As the punt went further into the depths of the tunnel, the luminosity extinguished for a moment into total darkness then lit up in scattered points to display the night sky. How this effect was engineered may always remain one of the unexplained mysteries of Ancient Egyptian Scientists or their highly developed Spiritualists. One can only conjecture now and suppose that they may have painted each star in its correct place with some substance containing the micro-organism, which triggered into light when a living being came within its sphere of influence. But the time it would have taken to place so many stars and galaxies correctly would have been far beyond any normal human capability. The Milky Way alone had every speck of galactic material true to its appearance at that time, and slowly changed as months and years rolled on. That it could adjust was evident when the living light identified Bilqees's energy emissions and re-aligned the night sky to show her personal zodiacal star display.

Gradually the night sky appeared to grow from what had been a fairly narrow strip to the full expanse that was visible on a good night from horizon to horizon. The punt still went with the flow along the length of the channel, but whilst it never widened, the walkway on each side did, allowing the walls to distance themselves and the ceiling to go higher. Then came a total blackout. Not one star remained alight, not one distant galaxy glowed. Few people ever in their lifetimes experience the heavy blackness that on earth is only found in the deepest caverns. It can be quite a shock to the system, and with it a silence that feels like some heavy pressure on the immobile eardrums. At the same time the flow of water ceased and the punt came to a standstill.

The darkness lasted only seconds, yet to the floating Queen it was as if she had visited an infinite eternity. Like a Symphony Overture that opens with the faintest whispering note of flute or oboe and grows in stages to the full majesty of the whole orchestra, and with it came a light of many changing colours showing one by one each spectrum of a rainbow. The different hues brought with them a different note in the musical scale until like a crescendo both colour display and sound harmonised into a flourish then died away and softened into the most pleasing and relaxing demonstration that any soul could desire. Along the way the energy flowing from her body chakra's mingled with the whole to add new tinges to the colours and sublimely adjust the music.

Bilqees had thus been conditioned in every way but one, into a state that was essential if the Oracle was to read her true. Lying inert, each fibrous tissue and each muscle had slackened so submissively that she hardly felt the serpent as it slithered into the boat, and slowly up onto her legs. Any reaction now was registered and valued. As if knowing what it had to do, the snake wriggled from side to side as it crept up to her thighs and then across her stomach, all the time flicking a forked tongue into the empty air. For a moment a pale green ceiling flecked with the grey of fear, then cleared into a knowing pallid yellow. Winding down to the side of her chest, nearly but not quite touching a cushion, it went around one breast and then the other to pause for a moment close to her neck. Then suddenly it was gone; vanished; like a dream that never had been real, and the colours flowed again through green to momentary reds.

The Spiders appeared from nowhere, as if they had crawled through some open fissure between dimensions. They came in colonies that merged and covered the Queen until she was covered in what appeared to be swathes of black billowing blankets. The roof glowed golden red and clayish spots erupted like the revolting boils of plague. Beneath the swaddling garb of arachnids her skin flinched when her will could no longer command her nerves to ignore completely the subject of her worst nightmares. Unseen perhaps by living eyes, but to the Oracle each spasm told a story.

Unable to bear the horror any longer Bilqees opened mouth and eyes and was about to thrash her arms and legs, but there was no need. Her intentions were anticipated and like the serpent the spiders vanished instantaneously. The sinking sensation back into comfort and ease of mind and body, brought with it an idea that the punt was lowering too, though this wasn't really true. As down it went in her mind, water adopted the viscosity of soothing oils that swirled about her body, manipulated by a multitude of imaginary massaging hands. Soft and gentle, yet at the same time firm they eliminated every tension fashioned by her recent dread. Repaired in mind everything returned to normal, until, a voice sounded in her head. Bilqees knew that it hadn't registered within her ears, and yet her senses told her that it was just as loud and real as any borne away from human vocal chords. They told her too that it was both a single female voice and at the same time an angels' chorus.

"What Question have you for the Oracle?", it sang.

The Psalm 23 adventure in The Labyrinth in Chapter Twenty-TwoPsalm 23 and what each verse meant to the Egyptians is shown in Appendix Note F44

"Alright," Jacob smiled. "It's still only an underground man made way into what might prove to be a warren, especially if we are to believe what Herodotus wrote about it. If only we knew what it is we really can expect at the other end?" It took some time to discern and make out the carvings over the mysterious tunnel entrances. The more they looked, the more they found. "Most of these, around the walls of the 'Receptacle' are magic spells, to help guide the departed on their way to their 'Promised Land' where they could expect to live on in a land of milk and honey, green fields and cool streams of fresh water. I've seen many of them before, but this one is very interesting. I'm sorry without my Egyptian dictionary, I cannot tell you the exact wording, but I can work out enough to see that it is very much like one of the most loved set of lines ever written in the Bible." Jacob was standing close to the right hand wall of the chamber, still studying the set of glyphs he had found, and the engraved tableaux that went with them. When he finally translated and pointed out various ideograms that helped the text along, both Mayebra and Claude emitted long whistles of sheer surprise.

"See this man stooped and leaning on what has to be a crook. As always we read towards the direction creatures are facing, so this text runs from left to right. Now see; behind the man there is a scene with a number of sheep following him. There is the same glyph we came across before, meaning Duat, and I think this one is 'black' or 'dark'. At a guess the line reads something like, 'He leads his sheep through the darkness of Duat, the Otherworld.'" Jacob was speaking slowly as he tried to read from the glyphs, and falteringly when he had to work them out. "Wait a moment, though. I missed this one." So saying, he pointed a little over to the left. "This glyph is the Falcon which represents,'Hr'. You know him better by the name the Greeks gave him, Horus. Therefore Horus is a shepherd who is leading his flock through the darkness of the Underworld." Jacob studied the next line below, and when he was fairly sure, continued. "Here it reads 'htpn' which was possibly pronounced as 'hetepen', but anyway it means 'rest', as in lying down. Then these glyphs read 'wadj'. Sounds a bit like 'wadi' doesn't it? And, maybe there is a connection, because streams run down through wadis and turn the land next to them green. Anyway it does mean 'green'. Now this next one spells 'Aha'at' and that is a field, but the quail chick at the end turns it into the plural. So now the scribe is telling us that the subject of the story is lying down in green fields."

It all sounded a bit disjointed as Jacob continued, picking out only the glyphs he could easily understand, "Waters of Hetep. So that will be waters of peace or rest. Yes, and this bit will be 'my Ka' or 'soul'. This wavy glyph with three humps is a determinative sign for 'mountain'. But look over here." Jacob sidestepped to get closer to a scene that had taken his interest. This is definitely a mountain or a large peaked hill, and there is not one, but two paths winding up around the sides. That tiny figure is very likely the same man that we have back on the other side of the text, but now he is on a mountain path, and…" Jacob paused while he leant over to take a closer look at the detail. "U-huh, he still has a stick, but it seems to be straight." He moved back to the glyphs, trying to find some explanation. "There we are, 'Staff of Amsu'. The Staff was a symbol that was buried with the departed. And just look at this next scene. It's a table piled high with food which I take it will be food for the gods. But this at the end is very unusual. They've made the 'house' glyph very large, and instead of explaining what they mean with glyphs below or to the side, they've actually put the 'God' determinative sign inside the rectangle. I would say that the intended meaning is that this is a house that has God inside it."

"Well, that's all very interesting," Claude commented, "but hadn't we better get on with our search?" Jacob had stepped back to get an overall look, and see if there was anything else of interest that he may have missed. Then taking a deep breath, he asked, "do either of you see what this means? No, well it is very close to Psalm 23." Seeing that they still hadn't fully understood, he started to recite those parts of the Psalm that he could link with the text and scenes, "The Lord is my Shepherd…He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…. He leadeth me beside the Still Waters… He restoreth my soul…." It was at this point that Mayebra and Claude whistled their surprise. But Jacob wasn't finished. "The paths up the mountain side must be the 'paths of righteousness', and the climber is using the staff, or rod, not as a comfort but to give himself some support. The table has been prepared, but fortunately there is no sign of any hostile force. As for this last amazing hieroglyph, it can only be telling us that God is inside the house on top of the mountain."

"Don't tell me," Claude joked. "We're about to find God at the end of the trail." Jacob looked at him with a kind of half smile, and said, "Many a true word spoken in jest." Mayebra however was looking much more serious. "Claude, think back on what I told you about the Benben. Maybe the Americans are right with their dollar note, and the treasure that was on top of the Great Pyramid, really is a space ship." The three friends thought about it, even seriously, then burst out laughing, as they all shouted, 'No, No, No.'

When they had settled down into a more serious frame of mind again, Jacob told them that in his opinion the glyphs and scenes he had just unravelled were related to their search. "Perhaps the whole thing is just another magic spell to remind the departed Ka what it must do to reach eternal rest. But being so close to this passage it is almost like saying 'this is the way'. Having given his opinion, Jacob turned his attention to the nearest passage. There were more lines and columns of glyphs that just seemed to be the usual 'pyramid' texts that lined the walls of all the wealthier tombs. Jacob ignored them, concentrating as was only natural, upon the sign that was just above the lintel. Almost immediately he exclaimed, "I know what this is. It's a simple glyph and easy to remember. Here we have a round circle with a small square sitting inside and at the bottom of the circumference. It is pa'at and it means, 'The Beginning'." "So that's where we start!" exclaimed Claude straightening himself up with renewed confidence as he started into the passage, torch in hand, and oxygen mask back at the ready.

"Not so fast, Claude." Jacob hurried after Claude and pulled him back. "Now what?", asked Claude a little put out. "Remember what happened in the first passage," said Jacob grimly. With head bowed and somewhat sheepish, Claude shuffled back into the 'Receptacle' chamber. "It is probably alright, but we cannot take any chances. We just can't rush it." Jacob was well aware that whoever had planned the path would use all kinds of tricks to trap the unwary. He was beginning to get into the mind of the Egyptian mystery maker, much like one who gets to know the mind of his favourite crossword puzzle cryptographer. "Before we go any further we must have a look at the centre passage. Right then, so what have we here?" It hadn't taken Jacob long to make out the main sign above the middle passage. "This looks like a man squatting on one knee. He has his hands raised, but the extraordinary feature of this glyph is the notched palm trunk sprouting out of his head. It's another useful sign to remember as it is usually used as a number. It means One Million, but it can also denote Infinity or, as it would have to be when placed in a tomb, Eternity. Then we have an Ankh on either side and as that means 'Life', then this has to be the passageway to Eternal Life."

Claude screwed his lips up. "Not for me. Wouldn't mind if we didn't become aged and decrepit, but living an eternity, all bent up and hardly able to walk or see. No Way." Mayebra laughed. "How about eternal life, ever young, in the next world, Claude? That's what they're offering here." "Well what are we waiting for," Claude exclaimed, already putting his best foot forward, and anxious to be on his way. Then coming to an abrupt stop, his bright face dropping into a look of horror as the full implication of what had to come first, dawned upon him. A smiling Jacob thrust past his stout friend, and having shone his torch into the passage, lighting up a series of figures on the walls, stepped back again. "The people painted on to the walls are all marching straight ahead, but they hold no staffs or rods. If we are to proceed according to the 'Psalm 23' glyphs, then this is unlikely to be anymore than the way to the open courts and hidden crypts, which Herodotus described. So if all are agreed, we take the right hand passage?" Mayebra and Claude nodded their agreement.

The three friends entered the passage slowly and cautiously. With Mayebra's lantern and the other's high beam torches, the painted walls sprang into life. The colours had inevitably faded, but sealed away from the destructive force of the outside atmosphere, it was only slight. There was still much strength in the tints and tones to make the least artistic observer gasp at the realism of the scene on either side. One couldn't help feeling that the lines of ancients were as much alive again as those who trod the ground between them. As Jacob, Claude and Mayebra walked on, the host of the past marched with them. "Something isn't right," Mayebra remarked after a fairly long interval of unspoken silence. "How's that?" asked Jacob. "Well, there was only the one man in the 'Psalm' text, yet here there must be hundreds, and what is more, where are the sheep?" Jacob thought for a moment, glancing as he walked at the walls, then said, "Have a look at the faces. They're all the same. It is the one man shown repeatedly as he proceeds along his 'paths of righteousness', and the sheep were only there in the text to show that he is the Shepherd." Claude broke in saying, "Then he must be the Lord!" "Apparently so," Jacob agreed. "But in reality, he will be a King, a Shepherd King." A few paces on, Jacob made another observation, "Look now. He was holding a Crook when we entered the passage, and now it is a straight stick, a staff which he thrusts down on to the ground to steady himself."

No more was said for quite some time, until Mayebra expressed more concern. "How far do you think we have come?" "Hard to say." Jacob was also regretting that they hadn't taken any note of the passing time on their watches, or that they hadn't had the sense to at least count how many steps they had taken. "You now," he said at last, "I think the passage has been curving. It certainly isn't straight." "And what's more," said Mayebra, we are definitely going down. I can feel it each time I put my foot down. Shouldn't we be going up, like the 'Psalm' text was showing?" "I know this is hard to understand," Jacob replied, "But in going down, we are as I think the Egyptians believed, ascending Spiritually. The Duat was both the Netherworld and a place on route to Heaven." Claude said, "No Comment!" Then as an afterthought light-heartedly asked, "So when do we get to lie down in the green pastures? I could do with a rest." An answer was not necessary for just then their torches aimed ahead, reflected the glint and sparkle of what appeared to be narrow streams of water, either side of the path. On closer examination, the 'still waters' turned out to be bluish green glass tiles. They were from the same glass pottery workshop that had provided the watery effect in Amenhotep III's palace. "Well they could have provided a bench," said Claude.

"You do realise what we might expect to encounter next?" Jacob like his two companions was beginning to take the whole expedition more seriously than ever. Perhaps we shouldn't be afraid of the 'valley of the shadow of death', but what comes after that." Claude, pulled his oxygen mask to one side, and muttered happily, "a table with a big feast." "Might be a bit off by now." Jacob traded quip for quip, before saying what was really on his mind. "We might get doused with oil, although down here, the only enemies possible would be rats. No, the inference of the texts is that the 'House of the Lord' is the end of the line for us. There may be no return." With that thought expressed so bluntly, all three came to a stop, and began to reconsider their options. It was Claude who brought them all to a final decision. "Have we all come this far, perhaps within metres of a great discovery only to be frightened off by a possibility that is let's face it, the bogey man from the past. Have we suffered hell and high water to fail without a final fight? If the said bogey man has been behind everything that has happened, well all I can say is that he couldn't get the better of us, and nor will he, Ever!"

"He's right you know," said Mayebra. "Besides the Egyptians did intend that somebody would make it through to whatever it is they hid and protected, from falling into the wrong hands, otherwise they were just wasting their time. You have the knowledge, Jacob, and look, we are on the right track, and the scenes and signs prove it." Jacob nodded, but was still cautious. "I'm sure that there will be some final test. Let's just hope that one of us can solve it." Shortly after they had past, the end of the 'still waters', openings appeared on either side of the passage. Some were closed with large slabs of stone in place, while many allowed them to peer in, and discern the purpose of the chambers. "They're burial crypts," Jacob remarked solemnly. "I wonder who might lie behind here?" Claude wasn't really curious but his usual self, whenever any of his friends sounded gloomy. He could always be counted upon to raise everyone's spirits, and make them forget their depressions and troubles. Just then he could have sworn that he heard the faint tinkling sound of a maiden's laughter. But this time it was only he who sensed an echo from an imprint in the stones' memory atoms, deposited there by moments of great happiness in a young woman's life. If only he may have seen the ghosts that once accompanied the sounds, he would have had a glimpse of a romance in its birth that only Balkeesha was privy to, in the land of the living. It was at this very place, that Bilqees and Smen had nearly been entombed, and the stone that stored her laughter was the one that had almost been too much for the gallant giant Samsamen.

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Jacob pronounced the words again, with feeling and meaning in every intonation. There was no need for any further explanation. They all knew now what it meant. That section of passage did have a cloud hanging over it. Even in the dim lighting of the lantern, though unseen, it's weight was like a ton press squeezing down on them, as if it were constricting breath, flattening willpower and suppressing the flow of life through every vein and artery. "Phew," gasped Mayebra when they were clear of it. "I'm glad that verse has passed." "We have, no doubt to return through it, on the way out," Jacob observed. "Don't remind me," said Claude. Not one of them saw it at first. The torches still lit the way ahead, and yet they didn't. Some kind of shield was in the way, turning the beams round just as a thick fog does to the headlights of a car on a cold night when the clouds have come down to ground level.

"What do we do now?" The trio all had the same question on their lips. They had come to another halt, fearful of what this new element might mean. "Do you think that it's gas?" suggested Mayebra. "Let me think about it for a moment," said Jacob. "Alright, I'm not sure how it has been released, if it has been released. I'm inclined to think that it isn't there at all and is some type of psychic phenomena. In which he case," he drawled, "We can beat it." He thought hard and deeply before giving a further opinion. "Someone was wondering what there might be to stop the casual inquisitive adventurer. Well, here is your answer. Most would just turn back. But that wouldn't deter the determined tomb raider. So it has to have an element of real danger in it. We've got to get this right." Claude interrupted, "Or what?" "Or we'll just get to the house of the Lord a mite faster," said Jacob.

Mayebra told Jacob and Claude to turn off their torches, while he held the lantern high. It made no difference. All he had done was cast an orange glow upon the viscous vapour. Threads of the cotton wool cloud floated within the mass of the cloud, like wisps of sheeted cloth waving up and down swirling this way and that. "Well that obviously doesn't work," he remarked bitterly disappointed. "No it won't," said Jacob, "and nor is it going to disperse on its own. I want us all to try this. I want you to clear your minds of all unhappy feelings. Let's just think of all the happy moments we've had in our lives. Claude, think of the time when you first met Estelle. Mayebra remember those days when we were young and how good it was to reach the top of a mountain. Feel warmth, and now imagine that a great white light is shining down into this cave. It is far brighter than the Sun, brighter than burning magnesium. It is a blinding white light." Even while Jacob was still speaking the cloud began to thin. "Oh Happy Days," he sang out loudly. Now the cloud was hardly more than a mist. "Oh Happy Days," they all joined in with laughter. Suddenly it was completely gone, and there before them was a wonderful and most colourful scene. It was so bright, and vividly vibrant in every hue, they were completely taken aback and could hardly take their eyes away from all that lay before them.

They were at the entrance of and looking into a very large chamber. There right in the centre was a great long table reaching almost from side to side. It was laden from one end to the other with Miniature Mountains of fruits and meats. Each and every one of them shone with the liveliest colour that was their nature when fresh from field and slaughterhouse. They were not intended to fool anyone into believing that they had once been real, and it did not require a close inspection to discern that they were the product of some ancient glass works. Even so, they would have put to shame the best products of a modern artificial fruit manufacturer, so close they were to a freshly plucked crop and no less could be said of what appeared to be freshly butchered meat. Stranger still, there were tropical and exotic fruits that one would have thought unknown in the time and land of the Pharaohs. There were for instance golden pineapples of a size that hadn't yet evolved a thousand years and more into the past.

Nor was it simply the magnificent table that took away the breath of the intruders. The illumination in the chamber was no less brilliant than that of a mid-day tropical sun lighting up and drawing out the colours in a manner that no temperate or higher latitude sunshine can evoke. "Is this it? Is this the treasure we have sought and risked our lives for?" Claude had got over the initial moment of awe and wonder, and it was beginning to dawn on him, that treasure comes to us in many forms, as love, as family, as friends, as knowledge, and as wonders of nature, but to name a few. Material treasure when all is said and done has no lasting value, for it is gone as soon as it is spent, or left behind, while the real things of life live on among our eternal memories.

"No Claude, this is not it. It isn't the last line of the 'Psalm' text. Nor is this one complete." Jacob was being very serious again, and his next reminder chilled them all. "Here is the table, but where are 'our enemies'?" It was as if his question set the next display in motion. The dazzling lay out on the table had drawn their eyes to that alone. None of the three friends had thought to look any further, not that is until the light began to dim. Seconds later they had only the light from their own torches and lantern, and in the vastness of the chamber it hardly penetrated into any of the shadowy sides and corners. Then just as quickly as it had faded away it blazed into a new intensity that was concentrated around the walls, and turned the centre of the underground hall into dim obscurity. Jacob hardly had time to take in the paintings on the walls, before he realised what was happening and yelled out, "Quickly, out of here at once." Not waiting to see if Mayebra and Claude understood, he ran back into the passage that they had so recently emerged from. As Jacob knew instinctively, he had only to run to express and convince the emergency of the situation upon his friends. They needed no second warning, and were hard on his heels, only stopping when they had run past the 'Valley of Death' and were safely back beside the 'Still Waters'.

"I knew there was something we had forgotten, something absolutely vital." "What?", the other two gasped, still breathless from the sudden and unexpected exertion. "Never mind, Listen." There was no doubt. They could all hear the tramp of marching feet clad in hard leather sandals slapping down onto the stone floor, in ominous unison. It, whatever it was, was coming towards them at a good pace and closing in on them by the second. "Quickly, we have no time to lose," Jacob panted. "We have to find the last wall paintings of the Wandering Shepherd." "Whatever for," asked Mayebra. "Never mind, hurry, and look." Jacob started running again, with his friends close behind. "There they are," Mayebra shouted. By this time they were all in a sorry state, bent over almost double trying to get their breath back. The oxygen masks had been a great inconvenience, and most of the time, they had them hanging loose. The air was slowly improving, for once the main entrance had been opened, a natural flow from some hidden vent had allowed a little circulation. But the run had made them feel sick, and it took a number of deep inhalations from the oxygen tanks to overcome the giddiness and restore some modicum of well-being. That wasn't the all of it, for the hasty exit from the chamber had set Mayebra's lantern swinging, and the two torches weren't faring well either from being swung around with every running stride. The lantern finally gave out after a fleeting survey of the walls and the shepherd, while one torch was flickering badly, as if it's batteries were about to submit to their predestined fate.

"Did you see them?" asked Jacob, forgetting completely that he hadn't yet told the others what he was looking for. He meant the Staff and Rod of comfort, but Mayebra thought he was referring to the horrifying spectacle that was beginning to take place on the walls of the chamber. The sound of marching feet was getting louder, again. "Let me have your torch," said Jacob. "Mine is hopeless. Where are they, where are they," he kept repeating as he shone the torch on one wall and then the other. Meanwhile the footsteps came on, now sounding as if they were about to reveal their owners at any second. Claude was ready to run again, even though it meant going off into the darkness of the passage. He was on his way before Jacob, saw him going, and shouted out. "Stop Claude. Our only hope is here. We have to find the Staff and Rod." "But," said Mayebra, "Every painting shows the Shepherd holding the Staff." "Yes," agreed Jacob hastily, "but it has to be the last. Look here his hands are both empty. Must be here."The soldiers of the Pharaoh were now within a few arm lengths, their swords and spears at the ready to slice and pierce the unwelcome and uninvited interlopers who were presently invading and despoiling their territory. The officer leading them presented his lance and began to charge, shrieking out the most terrifying and challenging war cry. It echoed through the narrow passage, sending bloodcurdling fear right through the hearts of the helpless trio.

CONSIDER the undeniable concrete facts
in the Tomb of the Young King,
left there so that future generations would learn about his divine nature.